The Catalan Opening and the Power of Restriction

I had a great positional struggle in the Catalan in the DC Chess League last Friday against an up-and-coming expert. The Catalan is a great opening choice if you're looking for a flexible game, often quiet at first but in many cases bursting into intense complications with subtle positional possibilities...or sometimes a direct attack on the king. Here are my thoughts on the game which will hopefully provide some insight into the Catalan and the power of restrictive play, as well as general observations on positional play, patience, etc. that players looking to move to the expert or master levels should find useful. I thought the interesting endgame that arose -- once the position finally exploded -- was worthy of close examination, too: